Lost Banksy Slab Painted In West Bank Turns Up In Tel Aviv

The Banksy rat has somehow scurried from its occupied origin city in West Bank, Bethlehem, to the skyscraper-dotted financial district of Tel Aviv, Israel. Palestinian officials believe it was stolen.

A painting of a slingshot-wielding rat, sprayed by the elusive street artist onto a concrete wall near Israel’s separation barrier in 2007, has mysteriously appeared 43 miles past the wall and now resides at the Urban Gallery in Tel Aviv, the Associated Press reports.

The mural, first appearing on occupied territory, is believed to have been created to protest Israeli occupation, so the cushy location of its resurfacing is uncanny. Koby Abergel, the Israeli art dealer and partner of the Urban Gallery who purchased the work, has described it as a “story of David and Goliath.”

Banksy is known for supporting the Palestinians through his art. But under occupation, this art ends up in Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/qDE3u8TZ6L

— Liora Sion (@LioraSion) August 1, 2022

Abergel tells the news outlet that the gallery is simply putting up the moved Banksy artwork on display and leaving it open to interpretation.

How the 900-pound concrete slab made it so far across protected land remains a mystery, though Abergel assures the Associated Press that the work is authentic, with its unique cracks and marks in line with those shown in an image on Banksy’s website.

In order to make the difficult 43-mile journey, the concrete work would have to get past military checkpoints, where travelers would frequently be stopped and searched by Israeli soldiers. Palestinians would also require Israeli permits to go over the border or import and export goods.

Palestinian authorities have lamented that the piece was stolen from the Palestinian people. A spokesperson for the Palestinian tourism ministry tells the Associated Press that the art was created by an international artist “for Bethlehem, for Palestine, and for visitors to Bethlehem and Palestine.” They add that the relocation was “illegal.”

The Israeli art dealer has defended that he had purchased the work from a Palestinian associate in Bethlehem through peaceful negotiations, and that the transportation of the slab was done legally and without help from the Israeli military. He alleges that the concrete chunk was protected in a steel frame before being lifted onto a truck and carried past a checkpoint, and that it arrived in Tel Aviv late at night.

Abergel claims that the slab was cut out by Palestinian residents themselves and kept in their homes until recently.

After acquiring the block, the gallery paid to remove spray-painted vandalism reading “RIP Banksy Rat” from the work.

[via Associated Press and The Daily Beast, images via various sources]